Articles

This article summarizes an important medical negligence class proceeding decision that addresses the use of circumstantial evidence to support findings of negligence and discusses common, class-wide findings of breach of the standard of care and causation. The Court of Appeal approved of the lower court’s reliance on statistical evidence with respect to rates of infection and agreed that there was a causal link between the class members’ infections and the Defendant’s subpar IPAC practices.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario has proposed changes to its registration policies to encourage more US-trained physicians to practice in Ontario. This article briefly highlights the different pathways through which physicians may become registered to practice in Ontario. The proposed policies are not yet in force and, for now, the old pathways still apply.

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (the "AODA") was enacted with the goal of creating an accessible Ontario by 2025. In 2017, the Health Care Standards Development Committee was asked to develop recommendations for a new accessibility health care standard. The Committee recently published their final recommendations, with broad implications on the health care sector.

The Ontario Divisional Court's decision in Stewart v Demme, 2022 ONSC 1790, a class action case against William Osler Health System and one of its ex-nurses (Demme), discusses the tort of intrusion upon seclusion in the context of a privacy breach. The intrusion under review here, namely, accessing health information in order to misappropriate opioids and support Ms. Demme's addiction, was not so offensive or significant as to cry out for a remedy.